The pride of Ahasuerus's heart rising with the grandeur
of his kingdom, he made an extravagant feast. This was vain glory. Better is a
dinner of herbs with quietness, than this banquet of wine, with all the noise
and tumult that must have attended it. But except grace prevails in the heart,
self-exaltation and self-indulgence, in one form or another, will be the ruling
principle. Yet none did compel; so that if any drank to excess, it was their
own fault. This caution of a heathen prince, even when he would show his
generosity, may shame many called Christians, who, under pretence of sending
the health round, send sin round, and death with it. There is a woe to them
that do so; let them read it, and tremble, Habakkuk 2:15,16.

Ahasuerus's feast ended in heaviness, by his own folly.
Seasons of peculiar festivity often end in vexation. Superiors should be
careful not to command what may reasonably be disobeyed. But when wine is in,
men's reason departs from them. He that had rule over 127 provinces, had no
rule over his own spirit. But whether the passion or the policy of the king was
served by this decree, God's providence made way for Esther to the crown, and
defeated Haman's wicked project, even before it had entered into his heart, and
he arrived at his power. Let us rejoice that the Lord reigns, and will overrule
the madness or folly of mankind to promote his own glory, and the safety and
happiness of his people.

── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Esther》

Esther 1

Verse 1

[1] Now
it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned,
from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

Ahasuerus —
Many suppose this to be Darius Hystapas, for his kingdom was thus vast, and he
subdued India, as Herodotus reports: and one of his wives was called Atossa,
differing little from Hadassah, which is Esther's other name, Esther 2:7.

Provinces — So
seven new provinces were added to those hundred and twenty mentioned, Daniel 6:1.

Verse 2

[2] That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his
kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace,

Sat —
Was settled in the peaceable possession of it.

Shushan —
The chief or royal city. Shushan might be the proper name of the palace, which
thence was given to the whole city. Here the kings of Persia used to keep their
courts in winter, as at Exbatana in summer.

Verse 4

[4] When
he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent
majesty many days, even an hundred and fourscore days.

Many days —
Making every day a magnificent feast, either for all his princes, or for some
of them, who might come to the feast successively, as the king ordered them to
do. The Persian feasts are much celebrated in authors, for their length and
luxury.

Verse 6

[6]
Where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen
and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and
silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.

Beds —
For in those eastern countries, they did not then sit at tables as we do, but
rested or leaned upon beds or couches.

Verse 8

[8] And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so the
king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do
according to every man's pleasure.

The law —
According to this law which the king had now made, that none should compel
another to drink more than he pleased. How does this Heathen prince shame many,
that are called Christians, who think they do not make their friends welcome,
unless they make them drunk, and under pretence of sending the health round,
send the sin round, and death with it!

Verse 9

[9] Also
Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged
to king Ahasuerus.

Women —
While the king entertained the men. For this was the common custom of the
Persians, that men and women did not feast together.

Verse 12

[12] But
the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains:
therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.

Refused —
Being favoured in this refusal by the law of Persia, which was to keep mens
wives, and especially queens, from the view of other men.

Verse 13

[13] Then
the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king's
manner toward all that knew law and judgment:

The times —
The histories of former times, what princes have done in such cases as this
was.

Verse 14

[14] And
the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and
Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, and
which sat the first in the kingdom;)

Saw —
Who had constant freedom of access to the king, and familiar converse with him:
which is thus expressed, because the Persian kings were very seldom seen by
their subjects.

Sat —
Who were his chief counsellors and officers.

Verse 18

[18]
Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king's
princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too
much contempt and wrath.

Contempt —
Contempt in the wives, and thereupon wrath in the husbands; and consequently
strife in families.

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus
which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia).

Artaxerxes

By almost universal acknowledgment now, the sovereign here
referred to is Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimanus, or the long.handed; the term
Ahasuerus being, like that of Pharaoh, expressive of the kingly dignity, and
not the name of an individual. In his time the Persian empire was of vast
extent, comprehending all the countries from the river Indus on the east to the
Mediterranean on the west, and from the Black Sea and the Caspian in the north
to the extreme south of Arabia, then called Ethiopia. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

God liberal to sinners

What rich gifts hath God often bestowed on men who know Him not!
Think not, however, that God is more liberal to His enemies than to His
friends. Some of the vilest of men possessed all the great and large dominions
of the Persian empire. But if God has bestowed on you the least measure of true
faith, of unfeigned love, of unaffected humility, He hath bestowed on you
treasures of inestimably greater value than all the possessions of Artaxerxes
Longimanus or of Nero. (G. Lawson, D. D.)

Prosperity cursed

Acurse is mingled with all the prosperity of sinners,
because they know not how to use or to enjoy, but are disposed, by their
corrupt tempers, to abuse everything which they possess. (G. Lawson, D. D.)

A great want in the soul of man

There is a want in the soul of man which all the wealth of one
hundred and twenty-seven provinces cannot supply. There is a want which the
best social arrangements cannot supply. There is a craving in the heart of man
beyond all creature power to satisfy. Guilty man needs to be placed in a right
relation toward God. Money cannot purchase for him peace and pardon. Artaxerxes
was as poor as the humblest serf in his dominions in this respect, and far
poorer than the poorest of the children of Judah, dispersed through his empire
as exiles, but knowing Jehovah. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Character of Ahasuerus

First to come before us in the story is the king, Ahssuerus, more
familiar to us as Xerxes. Cruel, passionate, capricious, his character as set
forth in contemporary history is wholly in keeping with all that we see of him
here. This is the man who was hospitably entertained by Pythias of Lydia when
on his way to Greece, and helped by an enormous contribution; but when the old
man, who had given all his other sons to the service of the king, pleaded that
the eldest might stay with him, Herodotus tells us that Xerxes in a fury
commanded that the son should be slain, and he made his whole army pass between
the severed body. Of him it is told how that when a storm destroyed the bridge
by which he would cross into Greece, he commanded the engineers to be slain,
and then had the sea beaten with chains to subdue it into better manners. He
comes near to us by his association with the famous Greek heroes. Marching in
his pride with a host of five millions, with which he would subdue the world,
he is stayed by three hundred Spartans, whilst his vast fleet is destroyed by
the skill and courage of the Greeks at Salamis, a victory that secured the
deliverance of Europe from Oriental despotism, and preserved for us the
literature and art which have uplifted and beautified our civilisation. (Mark
Guy Pearse.)

Which was in Shushan the
palace.

The palace at Shushan

is presented before us. Shushan was the metropolis of Persia, a
magnificent city of about fifteen miles circumference, and the residence of the
kings. In winter the climate was very mild, but in summer the heat was so
excessive that an oldwriter
says the very lizards and serpents were consumed by it on the streets. It was
probably on this account that the seat of government was at Ecbatana in summer,
and only in winter at Shushan. (T. McEwan.)

It is not entirely, however,
in moral recoil that sanction is thus given in law to the better practice.
There is a touch of political prudence in it. For here at the feast are princes
from all parts, with their retainers and tribes. There aremen here from the
mountains who are famous for their temperance and for the strictness and
simplicity of their manners. Such men would not be won, but disgusted rather
and alienated from the royal cause, by anything like Bacchanalian excess. In
prudence, therefore, as well as from possibly higher motive, the principle of
temperance must have the reinforcement of public law. (A. Raleigh, D.
D.)

God not to be insulted by
the abuse of His creatures

Did an absolute prince pay
such regard to the laws of his country, and to the liberty of his subjects, and
shall not Christians pay an equal regard to the laws of their religion? Are
these laws less obligatory upon us at feasts them on other occasions? Shall we
requite the liberal Giver of all good things with insults on His authority, at
the very time that our table is covered by His bounty?(G. Lawson.)

The compulsion of our
drinking customs

Whether we do not, on a
wider scale, as a people in fact, and with the force of law, practise
compulsion still, sad that on the weakest and most helpless part of our people,
is a very serious question, and one which, to say the least, we cannot answer
with the same confidence. If places where drink is sold to the common people
are multiplied much beyond the reasonable needs of the community; if
exceptional privileges are given to the sellers; if their houses, with many
exits and entrances, are planted in the most conspicuous spots; if they burn
the brightest lights in the streets, and are allowed to keep open long after
other trades and industries are closed and silent, does not all this and more
of the same kind amount to a sort of compulsion to working-people, and
trades-people, and thoughtless young people of both sexes?(A.
Raleigh, D. D.)

No compulsion to drink

The statement here made
reminds us of an incident which is said to have occurred at the table of Queen
Victoria in one of the early years of her reign. The temperance movement was
just beginning to make its way into the upper classes of English society, sad
on the occasion to which I refer a British nobleman, well-known for his
activity in all good causes, declined to comply with the request of one of his
fellow-guests that he should drink wine with him, whereupon the appeal wait
made to her Majesty that she should exert her authority in the case; but she nobly
replied, in the spirit of this Persian law, “There shall be no compulsion at my
table”; and that reply did much to discountenance the old custom of badgering,
and browbeating and insisting upon guests drinking out of regard for their
hosts, until they felt themselves in a position where it was difficult to
refuse, and were virtually compelled either to act against their better
judgment or to do that which was considered rude and unmannerly. (W. M.
Taylor, D. D.)

It was the third year of the reign of Xerxes. Now we know from the
Greek historian Herodotus that in that very year Xerxes “summoned a council of
the principal Persians, as well to hear their opinions as to declare his own,”
on the matter of the invasion of Greece. At first, on his accession to the
throne, we are told that “he showed little disposition to make war against
Greece, and turned his thoughts to the reduction of Egypt”; but after he had
succeeded in Egypt, he was all the more inclined to listen to the advice of his
cousin Mardonius, and seek to punish the Athenians for the defeat of his father
at Marathon. Accordingly, at the council assembled in Shushan, he declared his
purpose “to lay a bridge over theHellespont, and to transport an army into Greece, that he might
punish the Athenians for the injuries they had done to the Persians and to his
father.” Nay, not contentwith
that, he added, “I intend, with your concurrence, to march through all the
parts of Europe, and to reduce the whole earth into one empire; being well
assured that no city or nation of the world will dare to resist my arms after
the reduction of those I have mentioned.” He was opposed by his uncle,
Artabanus, but ultimately, under the influence of Mardonius and some illusory
oracles which fell in with his own ambition, the die was cast, and the decision
was made to prepare for and carry out the invasion of Greece with such an army
as the world had never before seen. Now it was in connection with this
determination, and in order, as I believe, to give the greatest possible
impulse to the carrying out of the enterprise so resolved on, that this
long-continued fete was held. He wanted to produce the conviction that, with
such resources as he had at his command, it was impossible that he should fail.
This accounts for the magnificent scale on which everything was done. It looks
supremely foolish, but it is a folly that keeps its ground to this day even in
western lands, where it is still the fashion for men to banquet themselves into
enthusiasm for some great railway enterprise or some party campaign. (W. H.
Taylor.)

Feasting not favourable to valour

There is good reason to suppose that this feast was held on the
occasion of his projected invasion of Greece. To fill the minds of his captains
with confidence, and to fire his soldiers with military ardour, he makes all
this vain display and provides this munificence of self-indulgence. If this be
so, with how little favourable result when the brunt of the struggle came! Yet
what other result than that which actually came could be reasonably expected?
Real courage and endurance are bred of much harder conditions than these. How
are real men made? and how are they made ready for any manly thing of more than
common difficulty? By feasting on rich viands? By drinking wine and looking on
it when it is red in the cup? By nights of revelry? By gazing on the outside
shows of life? By sinking into voluptuous ease? Never since the world began
have manhood and courage sprung of such things as these, although in a few rare
instances they may have passed through them unbroken and not much defiled. The
Greeks were comparatively few and comparatively poor; and their country had no
vast harvest bearing plains. They were fighting for rocks and mountains and
seas. But those mountains and seas were the symbols and the guardians of their
liberty. (A.Raleigh, D. D.)

Pride spoils hospitality

He has ordained a feast for them. But the feast is really to his
own power and pride. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

The vanity of worldly grandeur

1. There is unlimited power. The man presented to our view is
“reigning from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty
provinces.”

2. His power was supreme. The life of every subject in his kingdom
depended on his word. He ruled without resistance and without control. The
wealth, the productions, the inhabitants of the greatest empire of the earth,
were thus his undisputed right. Here was one great object of human ambition
completely gained. What struggles are made on earth for the attainment of
office and personal dominion! The lust of power has waged the deadliest wars of
earth, excited the cruellest murders of men, and deluged nations with blood.
Among ourselves we see this lust of power on a smaller scale, in all the
political efforts and contested elections of our own day, and in our own land.

3. There is a peaceful and secure possession of this unlimited power.
The view is given to us “in those days when Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his
kingdom.” Ahasuerus possessed his father’s dominions in perfect peace. He had
nothing to do but to govern peacefully and to enjoy abundantly. What blessings he
might have dispersed abroad! What monuments of usefulness to men he might have
established! The peaceful possession of power is a great privilege, as well as
a great temptation. It enables man to be a benefactor to his race. He may sit
as king among the mourners and make a thousand weary hearts to sing for joy.
But it is a great temptation to the sensual cupidity of man. The history of the
world is filled with the stories of human power, oppressive and destructive.

4. There is the possession of vast wealth and outward glory.
Ahasuerus gathered around him “all his princes, his servants, the power of
Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him,
when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his
excellent majesty.” No condition could appear to an earthly mind more desirable
or tempting. We know something of the struggle for wealth. It is the great
object for contest in the peaceful walks of business and commercial enterprise.
To be rich, in modern society, is to be influential and exalted. What a vast
privilege is the possession of such wealth! What happiness it may communicate
when it is faithfully dispensed and employed as an instrument for human
benefit! How great is the honour and the joy of being thus a public benefactor
to mankind! But the responsibility is also great. Alas, how opposite to all
this is the habitual use of wealth! It leads the selfish mind to a
forgetfulness and neglect of the wants of others. It persuades sinful men that
they have the right to live for their own indulgence and pleasure, and are not
to be held responsible to others for the way in which their own acquisitions
and means of influence are employed.

5. There is also splendid display. Wealth is often hoarded with a
covetous grasp for mere accumulation. Man wants even the openness of heart for
its display. But in the picture by which the Holy Spirit will illustrate for us
the emptiness of the world there shall be no such defect. The wealth which has
been amassed shall have the opportunity of the utmost manifestation. How we
follow after pageants and exhibitions of the lowest kind! The gilded tinsel of
such scenes, whether military or dramatic, funereal or joyous, is always
exciting and attractive to the giddy, silly minds of the multitude.

6. There is not only all this power, wealth, and display combined;
there is also here boundless actual indulgence and hospitality. What could have
been more grand or satisfying in earthly things? Doubtless the whole multitude
applauded the magnificence and hospitality of the youthful monarch. If the
world can give man happiness in sensual indulgence, here was a scene of its
perfect joy. No element of delight is wanting in such a picture. All these
provisions arc unsatisfying still.

Ahasuerus

I.The king of
Persia at this time was Ahasuerus. We read in Scripture of four grand earthly
empires, of which this was one--and the second in the order of succession. The
Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman all passed away as a
dream--they crumbled to dust, and their glory is long ago departed!
Notwithstanding the strength and celebrity of these ancient kingdoms, they came
to nought and “their dominion was taken away.” But there is a kingdom which
passeth not away. Its King will remain in honour and glory for ever, and its
subjects shall be blessed with everlasting happiness.

1. Great as was the extent of these kingdoms, His is inconceivably
more extensive.

2. It is also more durable. “His dominion is an everlasting
dominion.” Let us be anxious to be numbered among the subjects of this kingdom,
for they are all “kings and priests” for ever. With Christ on His throne we
shall stand before His throne and that of His Father in the celestial city; we
shall see His face, and His name shall be in our foreheads; we shall need no
candle nor light of the sun, for the Lord God will give us light, and we shall
reign for ever and ever!

II. This mighty
potentate, Ahasuerus, wished to make a display of his greatness. Seldom, alas!
is that expression, “Where much is given, much will be required,” practically
in their remembrance! Oh! let us beware of glorying in anything of our own--of
“sacrificing unto our own net, and burning incense to our own drag.” Man at his
best state is altogether vanity, and possesses nothing of any value but what
God has given him. Where providence has bestowed much of earthly wealth and
authority, it requires much grace not to be unduly elevated by them, and to
keep ever in mind that they are given for usefulness. The weighty responsibilities
which they bring with them are seldom considered. Let us beware of pride. “The
proud in heart is abomination to the Lord.” Crush the first risings of vanity
and self-importance. Dread every high thought of yourselves, every towering
imagination, every exalted ides of your own moral excellency, remembering that
God knoweth the proud afar off, but giveth grace to the humble.

III. At this feast,
though a heathen one, there was one thing which condemned the practice of many
who call themselves Christians. “and the drinking was according to law; none
did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house,
that they should do according to every man’s pleasure.” Intemperance is an
abomination to God and a degradation to man. Hereby the creature, which is
inferior only to the angels, makes himself lower than the beasts of the field!
The bounties of providence are continued evidences of God’s tender care toward
us, His undeserving creatures, and are to be thankfully and humbly received and
used piously and in moderation. They are given for the support of our nature,
to enable us to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits: let us not, then,
render ourselves incapable of doing so bydrowning our rational powers in intoxicating
liquors, and throwing our bodies out of health and comfort by a worse than
beastly abuse of God’s mercies.

IV. But though the
feast of Ahasuerus was free from the disgrace of compelling the guests to
proceed to drunkenness, yet did very evil consequences result from it; indeed,
it is but seldom that such meetings are free from such consequences. We read of
Belshaznar’s feast, and that it was not without its grievous impieties. We read
likewise of Herod’s feast, and of the deed of darkness which gave it its
notoriety. Our Lord, too (Luke 14:1-35.), teaches us that, though
the entertaining of our friends in this way is not entirely prohibited, the
money thereby expended would be much better laid out, against the day of
reckoning, in consoling the miserable and relieving the distresses of the
indigent and needy.

V. Let us consider
the evil which was occasioned by the feast.

1. It behoveth us to lead exemplary lives, and the higher we are
placed in community the more ought this to be the object of our ambition.

2. It behoveth us to regard the duties which appertain to the
relations of life in which we are placed. (J. Hughes.)

The short-lived treasure

The apostle Paul speaks of the world as if it were a pageant which
has been exhibited and is over; a procession which is on the march and has
passed by; a scene picture which drops for a moment and then gives way to
another which succeeds it. Here there is no continuing city for man. If he
would have a kingdom which cannot be removed, he must seek it beyond the limits
of the present world, among the things which are unseen and eternal.

1. Our first reflection must be, the world passeth away. It has gone.
All its indulgences and all its glories have come to their appointed end.
Nothing of them remains. Ahasuerus feasted and Vashti suffered. All is silent
and dead. No single voice of the glory or of thesorrow remains. Where is the splendour of
Shushan? Not one stone remains upon another of all the palaces of its glory or
the portals of its majestic display. How wonderfully contrasted are the works
of God and the works of man! The one has perished. The others remain, But is
not this equally true of earth in all the relations and displays of its glory?
Look where you will, you see the same history continually repeated. The bloom
of youth, the gaiety of health, the boast of riches, the clarion sound of
triumph and power, all, all pass away. They live a moment; they shine for a
day; and they are gone. Man tries in vain to prolong their enjoyment and their
being; or even to recover their shape, and perpetuate their memory. He is
doomed to disappointment in them all. The retrospect is sadness and self
condemnation. There at least we may say, “My heart and my hope shall not be
fixed. Something better than this I must have and will have. The joys that fade
so rapidly and so certainly are not for me. This world, and all the things
which are in this world, shall never be the treasure of my choice.”

2. As our second reflection upon this accomplished scene, the manner
of its passing has been most remarkable. In the lesson we have considered, God
has been pleased to show us this experiment on thegrandest scale. The world began with every
possible advantage for its working and its display, and in every succeeding
step it went downward until it came to nothing. Its first scene was its
brightest one. The morning rose when the tide was at his full and the surface
calm as the molten silver. Every hour marked its rapid ebb, till the evening
closed upon a full accumulation of defilement and disgust which the preceding
show had vainly covered for a season. It was a sad experiment indeed. In the
manner of its passage and trial it was a universal type. In all our possessions
of the world, in the whole scheme of mere worldly enjoyment, the first is
always the best. The clock of this world still strikes backward. It begins at
twelve, runs rapidly round to one, and then stops. Thus its circle is complete,
larger or smaller as it may happen to be. How many have I seen, starting in all
the pride of inherited wealth, closing their career in neglect and poverty! How
many have I beheld the centre of personal admiration in the world of fashion,
of earthly pomp and folly, living to be forgotten and abhorred! Thus this
present world repays its votaries. And when the result comes in age, or
sickness, or poverty, or neglect, and the whole machine has run down and
stopped, bitter and disgusting indeed is the remembrance of the world which has
gone. But what a contrast there is between this passing worldly portion and the
reality of that treasure which stands in opposition to it! The heavenly portion
ever grows more and more compensating and satisfactory. The heart never grows
old or dull in the faithful pursuit of it.

3. In this passage of the world you may see what are the elements of
its short-lived power to please--what are the facts which make up the necessity
of this rapid rush of all that sinful man has sought and desired on the earth.
Ahasuerus had everything which a mere sensual mind could ask. What formed the
necessity of his wretchedness in the midst of it all? We may answer at once,
because nothing of all that he had was adapted in itself to give him
satisfaction. This is the first difficulty. You have a spiritual nature, a soul
within which can never be satisfied with the mere shams of an earthly life. The
soul looks out in the midst of all the joys of earth unmet and unhappy, unable
to be contented thus, because there is no real proportion between the two.
There is here an original and inseparable defect in the things of the world,
which no multiplication of them can supply. These joys and treasures are all
short-lived and perishing in them selves. They have the sentence of death
within themselves; and you cannot prolong the period of their power. They
corrupt and decay in your hands while you grasp them. The appetites which
desire and seek these joys pass away with them also. There soon comes the time
when there is no longer a susceptibility to their power. Their invitations find
no longer a response in the heart to which they are offered. The voices of
singing men and singing women can be heard no more. And this with no reference
to a change of principle or heart. No, it may be we would willingly prolong
their power if we could; we would gladly renew our former gratifications in
them if it were possible. But all their power to please, and all our facility
to be pleased by them, have passed away and cannot be recalled. The whole scene
of which these earthly joys make up a part also goes, and cannot be arrested orrecalled. Friends are
gone; families are broken; homes are lost; companions have departed. We stand
here to contemplate this inherent fading character in the world which has
passed. What a contrast are all its provisions to the joys and advantages of
real religion!

4. We may look at the result of this passage of the fashion of the
world. What does it leave behind? All, this is the worst of all. We have seen
the evidence in the experiment before us. Nothing in memory. There is no
remembrance of benefit or pleasure. The past gives no satisfaction. There is no
room for delight in retrospection. A wasted life, enfeebled powers, conscious
degradation, are all the residuum of a life of sensual enjoyment in the world.
Added to this, there is extreme regret, often the bitterness of unappeased
remorse. Nothing in actual possession. What of all the array of human pleasures
outlasts itself? Youth, gaiety and wealth successively pass by. Man goes out of
one vain indulgence into another, but carries nothing away with him. The soul
is empty. He presses on in this vain succession to the end. The fact of the
result remains the same. He has nothing. Pleasure has gone; time has gone;
indulgence has gone; means have gone; appetites have gone; life has gone. And
of the whole pageant as it has passed nothing remains. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

Self-glorification

I.The monarch was
able to mare a proud display and to gratify the oriental taste for
magnificence.

II. But this proud
display was a contemptible exhibition. It showed--

1. The materialism of his nature.

2. The narrowness of his view.

3. The childishness of his spirit.

III. This proud
display has a sorrowful aspect. The display only lasted for days after all. Let
our wealth--material, intellectual, or moral--speak for itself. Let us see the
warning word “days” inscribed on all our possessions. (Homiletic Commentary.)

A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of his wealth

The whole struggle of modern life is exactly after the first
chapter of Esther and the first chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Every
Ahasuerus thinks he could do better than his namesake, and every new Solomon
says that he would never play the fool as the old one did. What little toy
houses are ours as compared with this palace; and yet we will persist. Why do
we not believe history? Why do we not accept the verdict that it is not in time
or sense, in gold or precious stones, to make a man great or happy? When we
have built up our little toy houses, Ahasuerus looks down upon them, and smiles
at the little honeycombs. His “beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of
red, and blue, and white, and black marble.” Yet it was an elaborate tomb, a
magnificent sarcophagus! When will men come to learn that a man’s life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth; that he is
most jewelled who has no jewellery; that he only is great who is great in soul?(J. Parker, D. D.)

The honours of the world should not elate

Alcibiades was one day boasting of his wealth and great estate,
when Socrates placed a map before him, and asked him to find Attica. It was
insignificant on the map; but he found it. “Now,” said the philosopher, “point
out your own estate.” “It is too small to be distinguished in so little a
space,” was the answer. “See, then,” said Socrates, “how much you are affected
about an imperceptible point of land.” Your bags of gold should be ballast in
your vessel to keep her always steady, instead of being topsails to your masts to
make your vessel giddy. Give me that distinguished person who is rather pressed
down under the weight of all his honours than puffed up with the blast thereof.
(Abp. Secker.)

Waste of wealth

I am no advocate for meanness of private habitation. I would fain
introduce into it all magnificence, care, and beauty, when they are possible;
but I would not have that useless expense in unnoticed fineries or
formalities--cornicing of ceilings, and graining of doors, and fringing of
curtains, and thousands of such things--which have become foolishly and
apathetically habitual . . . I speak from experience: I know what it is to live in a cottage with
a deal floor and roof, and a hearth of mica slate; I know it to be in many
respects healthier and happier than living between a Turkey carpet and a gilded
ceiling, beside a steel grate and polished fender. I do not say that such
things have not their place and propriety; but I say this emphatically, that a
tenth part of the expense which is sacrificed in domestic vanities, if not
absolutely and meaninglessly lost in domestic comforts and encumbrances, would,
if collectively afforded and wisely employed, build a marble church for every
town in England. (J. Ruskin.)

The royal feast

Let us draw a comparison between the great Persian feast and the
feast of the gospel.

I. The one was
provided by the king; the other by the King of kings.

II. The one feast
is limited to nobles and princes; the other is made for all nations.

III. In the one we
see the fading glories of man; in the other we see the unfading glories of God.

IV. The one feast
continued for six months; the other continues through all time.

V. In the one case
some were obliged to feast in the court of the garden, as there was not room
for them in the palace; the church of God is for all comers.

VI. In the one case
there was a separation of husbands and wives; but in the other both are welcome
together. VII. The one feast ended in consternation and sorrow; but the other
shall continue in joy and happiness. Learn, in conclusion--

1. The insufficiency and instability of all earthly things.

2. The rich grace and goodness of our God. (The Study and the
Pulpit.)

When he shewed the riches
of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty.

Despotism occasionally generous

Despotism, while it has its caprices of cruelty, has also its
occasional fits of generosity and kindness. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Extravagance

Every one is to live, and to entertain his friends, according to
his rank and circumstances; but those who are of a liberal spirit are in danger
of indulging in extravagance, to gratify their vanity and passion for show. (T.
McCrie, D. D.)

Unsatisfying splendour

What was there in all that to satisfy the soul’s hunger and
thirst, its craving and longing? One morsel of the bread of life would be
better, one drop of the wine of the kingdom more blessed and exhilarating, than
it all. So that when we look abroad upon the scene of Persian magnificence and
luxury, theglitter
and splendour of it seems to dissolve and fade away when there is brought into
prominence our Lord’s solemn inquiry, “What is a man profited if he shall gain
the whole world and lose his own soul?” (T. McEwan.)

Temperance best

Epicurus himself, who placed happiness in pleasure, enjoined
temperance as a necessary means of this pleasure. An author of our own nation
justly observes that when a great multitude of alluring dishes are set upon a
table a wise man may see palsies, apoplexies, and other grievous or mortal
distempers lurking amongst them. Poor men, who are unable to provide for
themselves anything beyond the bare necessaries of life, are apt to envy those
who have it in their power to fare sumptuously every day. Be persuaded, if you
desire to be content with your condition, that happiness does not lie in the
abundance of the things which a man possesseth, or in the rich entertainments
which he is able to furnish out for himself or his friends. Could not Jesus
have furnished out as elegant an entertainment for those whom He fed by
miracles as Ahasuerus to his noble guests? And yet He fed them only with barley
loaves and fishes. Could not God have brought wine as easily as water out of
the rock for the refreshment of His people? (G. Lawson.)

The expense of feasting

Poor man! Little did he know wherein true riches, and glory, and
royalty consisted. It is said of the father of Louis XV., king of France, that
when his preceptor one day was speaking of this feast of Ahasuerus, and
wondered how the Prince of Persia could find patience for such a long feast, he
replied that his wonder was how he could defray the expense of it. He was
afraid that the provinces would be compelled to observe a fast for it.

The majesty of the Divine Ruler

From the tinselled splendour of the Persian court it may be well
for us to turn that we may contemplate the majesty of Him who is the true King
of kings and Lord of lords; of Him whom Isaiah represents as “sitting upon the
circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that
stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them as a tent to dwell
in.” To acquire adequate conceptions of His majestic greatness is an
impossibility. That which surrounded Ahasuerus was no doubt such as to inspire
awe. And were it possible that a human potentate should hold sway over the
several planets constituting the solar system--ruling subjects innumerable by
his uncontrolled will--what majesty in the eyes of millions would centre around
his person and government! He, however, into whose majestic presence we shall one
day enter, and at whose footstool we ought now to bow in reverence, is the
Ruler, not alone of earth, nor simply of the solar system, but He whose
government is coextensive with the universe, whose presence fills immensity,
whose sceptre when lifted in mercy bestows life, when in anger consigns to
wretchedness. The inconceivable majesty of God ought to impress us with a
becoming sense of our own insignificance. A proper conception of the majesty of
God is fitted to induce the inquiry, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” It
should prompt the desire for some humble part in enhancing God’s glory, the
inclination to do something toward accomplishing the work He is carrying
forward in the earth and is willing to effect in our own hearts. He whose
ambition it is to conquer the kingdom of evil within himself and who accepts
Christ as the Captain of his salvation is destined to no such disappointment as
crushed the spirit of Xerxes, forcing him to feed upon the ashes of crushed
hopes and to surrender to self-indulgence that he might drown the memory of
former anguish. (J. Van Dyke, D. D.)

Where were white, green,
and blue hangings.--

The beauty of nature

Every day we behold a more glorious scene in the canopy of the
heavens spread over our heads. The roses and lilies which adorn our gardens are
more beautiful than any of the productions of art which royal wealth can call
forth. The earth is full of God’s riches. The heavens show forth His glory.
Those who delight to have their eyes and their minds at once entertained can be
at no loss, though they are far from royal palaces, when the earth displays her
beauty and the stars their glory. (G. Lawson.)

And gave them drink in
vessels of gold.--

An absurd drinking custom

What a miserable thing it is that we hear sometimes that a man
cannot do his business without drinking! “Come and have a drink!” is the
beginning of business, and “Come and have a drink!” is the completion of it.
What a glutton and a beast a man should be if before he could begin or finish
any business he must say, “Come and have a meal!” And is he any better who must
always drink something? Surely, when competition is so keen, it is needful that
he who buys or sells should keep his wits as clear as God made them. To muddle
one’s own brain with drink is to play the fool; to muddle another’s is to play
the knave. (Mark Guy Pearse.)

There is a difference between not being intoxicated and being
sober. A person may be able to speak and to walk, and yet may be guilty of
excess in the use of strong drink. He may not have lost the use of his senses,
and yet have lost the sound use of his senses. He may lose his guard, and
expose himself defenceless to the attack of temptation. Reason is the glory of
a man, and whatever tarnishes or dims the lustre of this crown is criminal.
Next to reason, speech is man’s glory, and everything which causes it to falter
is sinful. Whatever makes a man slow to hear, swift to speak, swift to
wrath--whatever makes him rash in counsel, and precipitate in action--whatever
makes him say or do what is unbecoming his character, and what he would be
ashamed of at another time--cometh of evil, and may be the source of great
vexation to himself and injury to others. (T. McCrie.)

Drunkenness does not destroy responsibility

Theworst effect of the vice of drunkenness is its
degrading influence on the conduct and character of men. It robs its victims of
self-respect sad manliness and sends them to wallow in the mire with swinish
obscenity. What they would not dream of stooping to in their sober moments they
revel in with shameless ostentation when their brains are clouded with
intoxicating drink. It is no excuse to plead that a drunkard is a madman
unaccountable for his actions; he is accountable for having put himself in hie
degraded condition. The man who has been foolish enough to launch his boat on
the rapids cannot divert its course when he is startled by the thunder of the
falls he is approaching; but he should have thought of that before leaving the
safety of the shore. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

The drunkard’s excuses and the drunkard’s woe

I. The drunkard’s
excuses.

1. Good-fellowship. But can friendship be founded on vice; especially
on a vice which impairs the memory and the sense of obligation, leads to the
betrayal of secrets, and stirs up strife end contention?

2. It drowns care. But the drunkard’s care must arise either from the
ill state of his health, the unfortunate position of his worldly affairs, or
the stings of a guilty conscience; and in either case his temporary oblivion is
purchased at the cost of an aggravation of the evils which cause him to desire
it.

II. The drunkard’s
woe. This is made up of the miserable effects.

1. Temporal.

2. Spiritual.

Drunkenness travels with a whole train of other vices, and
requires the whole breadth of the broad way to give it room. (Clapham’s
Selected Sermons.)

Afraid of drink

Stonewall Jackson, “Jeb” Stuart, and a large number of the most
distinguished of the Confederate officers imitated the example of their chief,
and were strict temperance men. Upon one occasion Jackson was suffering so much
from fatigue and severe exposure that his surgeon prevailed on him to take a
little brandy. He made a very wry face as he swallowed it, and the doctor
asked, “Why, general, is not the brandy good? It is some that we have recently
captured, and I think it very fine.” “Oh, yes!” was the reply, “it is very good
brandy. I like liquor--its taste and its effects--and that is just the reason
why I never drink it.” Upon another occasion, after a long ride in a drenching
rain, a brother officer insisted upon Jackson’s taking a drink with him; but he
firmly replied, “No, sir, I cannot do it. I tell you I am more afraid of King
Alcohol than of all the bullets of the enemy.”

The battle with drink

And drink is such a degrading enemy to the intellectual man: the foe is unworthy
of his steel. The battle of drink is not like the old contests of chivalry,
when knight assailed knight with unblemished shield, and there was such a grace
and elegance about the conflict that even defeat was not dishonourable. It is
more like a battle with a chimney-sweep falling foul of you, rolling on you his
heavy bulktill he has you sprawling in the mud, and so smearing you
that you become an object of loathing--to yourself, if you have any sense of
shame, and certainly to all who pass by. Could any humiliation be deeper?(G.
W. Blaikie.)

The safety of temperance

Suppose there were two lines of railroad; on one of them was an
accident regularly once a week, sometimes on one day, and sometimes on another;
and on the other there never had been an accident. Suppose your only son wanted
to go the journey traversed by the respective lines, and he were to come to you
saying, “Which road shall I take, father?” would you dare to tell him to take
that uponwhich the accidents were so frequent, because it was the most
fashionable? You would say at once, “Take the safe road, my boy.” And that is
just what we temperance folks say. (John B. Gough.)

Wise abstinence

There was a half-witted boy in one of the southern counties of
Scotland who was known as an “innocent” or “natural.” Upon one occasion he was
enticed into a public-house where a company of young men were drinking. Some of
them offered spirits to this supposed simpleton, whereupon he instantly and
absolutely refused them, saying, “If the Lord Almighty has given few wits to
Daft Davie, He has at least given him sense enough to keep the little that he
has!” (Sunday School.)

Whatever be the ruling passion of a man, whether it be pride,
vanity, or anger, or lust, or impiety, or even benevolence, it will display
itself when he is inflamed by strong drink. Vanity was the ruling passion in
the breast of the Persian monarch. He had feasted his nobles for weeks to “show
the riches of his glorious kingdom”; and now he would bring in the queen, to
“show the people and the princes her beauty.” He was vain of Vashti; and having
displayed “the honour of his royal majesty,” he would now exhibit the beauty of
her royal majesty. We are hurt by the ebullition of pride--but ready to laugh
at the display of vanity. It is true that it makes its subject ridiculous, but
it is a vice as well as a weakness, and is often productive of great mischief.
The female sex is commonly supposed to be most addicted to vanity; but men axe
not free from it, and, if they have nothing to be vain of themselves, are
sometimes fain to shine in borrowed feathers. (T. McCrie.)

Vashti’s refusal

What the reason was that swayed her to this bold step we are not
told. Her motives may have been mixed. Perhaps she was tired with her own
exertions. Perhaps she felt that for the time she was not beautiful, and would
not look queenly. Perhaps she thought the summons too peremptory, and the
bearers of it not dignified enough to come to her with such a message. We
cannot certainly tell. All human motives are more or less mixed, and so were
hers--but one feels bound to say that by far the most probable cause of her
refusal was a deep sense of injury done to her womanhood, and of course to her
queenliness, in this sudden call to show herself in such a company, at such a
time. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

The pride of Vashti

Bad as the conduct of the king was in issuing the order, it does
not follow that the queen was right in disobeying it. If the action had been in
itself positively immoral, then it would have been her duty to have resisted,
whatever the consequences might be. No authority can bind, and no danger should
constrain, a woman to do anything which is vicious or essentially immodest. Had
Vashti of her own accord gone into the company, had she sought the opportunity,
or embraced it joyfully, she would have been convicted of immodesty; but had she
complied merely out of respect to authority, and to prevent her husband from
being dishonoured by her refusal, in the presence of his subjects, her conduct
would have appeared in a very different light in the eyes of all reasonable
persons. She was a subject, as well as a wife; and if her royal husband had,
when heated with wine, issued an order which reflected on her honour, she,
being perfectly sober, might have consulted his. But Vashti was as proud as
Ahasuerus was vain, and determined that if he was imperious, she would be
haughty and unyielding. She was piqued that such a message should be sent to
her in the presence of her maids of honour and the great ladies of Persia, and
resolved to show her spirit by setting at nought the request of the king her
husband. Instead of making a modest excuse, or sending “a soft answer which
turneth away wrath,” she gave a flat and peremptory refusal. (T. McCrie.)

Vashti obeyed the higher law

Thus the question was publicly forced on all, Is this man, who
rules from India to Ethiopia, really a great man, after all? For Vashti
disobeyed him; and Vashti was right. There is a higher law than even the will
of a king and a husband--the law that gives a woman right to guard her own
modesty when those who should guard it for her do not. Vashti obeyed that
higher law written by the Creator in the nature of men and women; and we can
think nothing but good of her in the matter. Had force been used, her
responsibility would have ceased, but she had no right to yield; and the crown royal
was a cheap price to pay for her own self-respect.

Selfishness is unfeeling

Did he send a message to Vashti to ask if she would be willing?
When was woman ever honoured out of Christ, who redeemed her out of her social
estrangement and solitude, and set her forth invested with the queenliness of a
God-given beauty and modesty. Hear the king: “Fetch Vashti now, and make a show of her
beauty, for she is fair to look upon.” All this is in natural order.
Selfishness never considers the feelings of others. Selfishness will be
gratified at all costs and hazards. When a man’s heart is merry with wine all
that is most sacred in humanity goes out of him. Who can withhold anything from
a ravenous beast? Who should stay his power and say be quiet, be self-controlled,
be contented? None. This is human nature when left to itself. (J. Parker, D.
D.)

Amestris

IfAhasuerus is to be identified with Xerxes, it is
probable that Vashti is the same as the Amestris who is spoken of by the Greeks
as the wife of Xerxes, and whom he must have wedded before his accession to the
throne. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

Vashti right

But for my part I consider itworthy of all praise, and hold that she was
entirely right in what she did. It is true that by the appointment of God the
husband is the head of the wife, but the headship is not absolute and
autocratic. Here, too, the government must be constitutional and within limits
which have been fixed by the Lord Himself. No husband has a right to command a
wife to do that which is wrong, and liberty of conscience ought to be as sacred
in the home as in the State. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

Vashti had good reason to be excused

Vashtihad good reason to beg to be excused from appearing
in a company where too many were merry with wine, and it is probable that if
she had sent her humble request to the king to spare her modesty he might have
recalled his orders. (G. Lawson.)

Disobedience of Vashti

She was in no danger of being insulted by indecent words or wanton
glances in the presence of her royal husband, whose frown was death to his
subjects. She thought she was supporting the honour of her sex. But did not she
see that she was affronting her husband and her king not only before his
chamberlains but before all his people? It he suffered his own family to
trample upon his authority his respectability amongst his other subjects must
have been greatly lessened. The queen is the first subject in the kingdom; she
ought, therefore, to go before all the other subjects in showing a becoming
deference to the king’s pleasure. If men expect due obedience from their wives,
let them be always reasonable in their commands, otherwise half the guilt of
the disobedience of their wives will remain with themselves. Never impose a
burden upon your wife which either female delicacy or her particular temper,
which you ought to know, will render too heavy for her to bear. Ahasuerus hoped
to show to all his princes and people in Shushan how happy he was, and only
showed them his misery. (G. Lawson.)

Worldly indulgence disappointing

WasAhasuerus contented with what he had so richly enjoyed?
We stand in this chamber of the world to witness a remarkable scene of its
madness and folly.

1. Behold the thorough dissatisfaction which attends its joys. See
the conscious wretchedness which limits all its pleasures. Man finds an
inherent and inseparable element of dissatisfaction in all the scenes of his
earthly joys. They do not, they cannot meet his wants. He awakes always to find
that his soul is empty, and sad in the consciousness of the fact. Ahasuerus is
just as unsatisfied with all his magnificent display and with his six months’
pompous festival as the poorest subject of his realm is with his own hard lot
unlimited opportunity of indulgence is nothing, while there is a limited capacity
to enjoy and an unlimited craving for enjoyment. Such was Ahasuerus. His heart
was empty of joy though filled with madness. He imagines a new spectacle which
will awaken a new admiration. He commands his seven chamberlains “to bring
Vashti the queen before the king, with the crown royal, to show the people and
the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on.” But he is not alone.
Where is the feast or where the provision of the world for human gratification
in which there is nothing left for the heart to desire? Ahasuerus is but a
specimen. His folly has been multiplied in myriads of instances, and in every
variety in the scale of imitation. It only shows what emptiness there is in the
whole of this scheme of sensual gratification.

2. Behold the bitter disappointment. “QueenVashti refused to
come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains.” Refused to come!--what a
disappointment to morbid, vulgar curiosity! What a fall to intoxicated pride!
But it was a noble specimen of woman’s dignity, modesty, and virtue. All his
indulgence is forgotten--the happiness of his palace has passed away. The
worldly heart is empty and vexed with itself. His dream of glory has vanished.
Its beauty and splendour have withered completely for him. One “dead fly” has
destroyed the fragrance of the whole provision. But is this a peculiar case in
the disappointment which it describes? Was Ahasuerus the only victim of such
conscious mistake in the midst of indulgence? You see the madness, the
disappointment in the sensual heart which worldly indulgence everywhere
produces. Go where you will, as far as you will, still desire anal imagination
press further on. Something is yet demanded to complete your attainment. This
is the inevitable law of the result in human pleasure. The brightest portion
leaves something still to ask. The highest attainment is as unsatisfying as the
lowest.

3. Behold the degradation to which this disappointment has brought
its victim. The king is wretched in the presence of them all Ahasuerus is
degraded, but he has degraded himself. The man who has sacrificed his virtue,
his integrity, his self-respect, may be sure that, sooner or later, his sin
will find him out. But this is another lesson in the chamber of worldly
indulgence. This is the habitual end of a life of mere sensual gratification.
Personal degradation is its habitual result--in some shape or other its final,
inevitable result. Moral, outward degradation frequently! Intellectual,
conscious degradation, social degradation! what can be more degrading than such
a subjection? What can be more degrading than such a slavery to brute appetite
and sensual display? It is the defiling and destroying of a mind that might be
elevated to God and educated for glory. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

Vashti

1. Inthe first place I want you to look upon Vashti the
queen. A blue ribbon rayed with white, drawn around her forehead, indicated her
queenly position. It was no small honour to be queen in such a realm as that.
Hark to the rustle of her robes! See the blaze of her jewels! And yet it is not
necessary to have palace and regal robe in order to be queenly. When I see a
woman with stout faith in God, putting her foot upon all meanness and
selfishness and godless display, going right forward to serve Christ and the
race by a grand and glorious service, I say, That woman is a queen, and whether
she comes up from the shanty on the common or the mansion of the fashionable
square I greet her with the shout, “All hail, Queen Vashti!” When Scarron, the
wit and ecclesiastic, as poor as he was brilliant, was about to marry Madame de
Maintenon he was asked by the notary what he proposed to settle upon
Mademoiselle. The reply was, “Immortality; the names of the wives of kings die
with them; the name of the wife of Scarron will live always.” In a higher and
better sense upon all women who do their duty God will settle immortality! Not
the immortality of earthly fame, but the immortality celestial. And they shall
reign for ever and ever! Oh, the opportunity which every woman has of being a queen!
The longer I live the more I admire good womanhood. If a man have a depressed
idea of womanly character he is a bad man, and there is no exception to the
rule. The writings of Goethe can never have any such attractions for me as
Shakespeare, because nearly all the womanly characters of the great German have
some kind of turpitude.

2. Again, I want you to consider Vashti the veiled. Had she appeared
before Ahasuerus and his court on that day with her face uncovered she would
have shocked all the delicacies of Oriental society, and the very men who in
their intoxication demanded that she come, in their sober moments would have
despised her. As some flowers seem to thrive best in the dark lane and in the
shadow, and where the sun does not seem to reach them, so God appoints to most
womanly natures a retiring and unobtrusive spirit. God once in a while does
call an Isabella to a throne, or a Miriam to strike the timbrel at the front of
a host, or a Marie Antoinette to quell a French mob, or a Deborah to stand at
the front of an armed battalion crying out, “Up! Up! This is the day in which
the Lord will deliver Sisera into thy hands.” And when women are called to such
outdoor work and to such heroic positions God prepares them for it. When I see
a woman going about her daily duty--with cheerful dignity presiding at the
table; with kind and gentle but firm discipline presiding in the nursery; going
out into the world without any blast of trumpets, following in the footsteps of
Him who went about doing good--I say, “This is Vashti with a veil on.” But when
I see a woman of unblushing boldness, loud-voiced, with a tongue of infinite
clitter-clatter, with arrogant look, passing through the streets with a
masculine swing, gaily arrayed in a very hurricane of millinery, I cry out,
“Vashti has lost her veil.”

3. Again, I want you to consider Vashti the sacrifice. Who is this
that I see coming out of that palace gate of Shushan? She comes homeless,
houseless, friendless, trudging along with a broken heart. Who is she? It is
Vashti the sacrifice. Oh, what a change it was from regal position to a
wayfarer’s crust! Ah! you and I have seen it many a time. Here is a home
empalaced with beauty. All that refinement and books and wealth can do for that
home has been done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is taking hold
on paths of sin. He is gradually going down. Soon the bright apparel of the
children will turn to rags; soon the household song will become the sobbing of
a broken heart. The old story over again. The house full of outrage and cruelty
and abomination, while trudging forth from the palace gate are Vashti and her
children. Oh, Ahasuerus, that you should stand in a home by a dissipated life
destroying the peace and comfort of that home!

4. Once more, I want you to look at Vashti the silent. You do not
hear any outcry from this woman as she goes forth from the palace gate. From
the very dignity of her nature you know there will be no vociferation,
Sometimes in life it is necessary to make a retort; sometimes in life it is
necessary to resist; but there are crises when the most triumphant thing to do
is to keep silence. Affliction, enduring without any complaint the sharpness of
the pang, and the violence of the storm, and the fetter of the chain, and the
darkness of the night--waiting until a Divine hand shall be put forth to soothe
the pang and hush the storm and release the captive. An Arctic explorer found a
ship floating helplessly about among the icebergs, and going on board he found
that the captain was frozen at his log-book, and the helmsman was frozen at the
wheel, and the men on the look-out were frozen in their places. That was awful,
but magnificent. All the Arctic blasts and all the icebergs could not drive
them from their duty. Their silence was louder than thunder. And this old ship
of the world has many at their posts in the awful chill of neglect, and frozen
of the world’s scorn, and their silence shall be the eulogy of the skies, and
be rewarded long after this weather-beaten craft of a planet shall have made
its last voyage. I thank God that the mightiest influences are the most silent.
The fires in a furnace of a factory or of a steamship roar though they only
move a few shuttles or a few thousand tons, but the sun that warms the world
rises and sets without a crackle or faintest sound. Travellers visiting Mount
Etna, having heard of the glories of sunrise on that peak went up to spend the
night there and see the sun rise next morning, but when it came up it was so
far behind their anticipations that they actually hissed it. The mightiest
influences of to-day are like the planetary system--completely silent. Don’t
hiss the sun! (T. DeWitt Talmage.)

Therefore was the king
very wroth.

Self-control the highest attainment

“Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.”
Literally, he frothed at the mouth and became as a wild boar. The strength of
manhood is in self-control. The Oriental king could not brook that his will
should be resisted. It is the very highest attainment of Christian education
that a man shall accept the resistance of his will as an element in his
culture. No man will seek to force his will; he will reason about it, he will
be mighty in argument, tender and gentle in persuasion, and if he cannot win
the first day or the second day, he may be successful on the third day. But
mere force never won a true victory. Conquer by love and you will reign by
consent. Let men feel that your wisdom is greater than theirs, and they will
say, “God save the king!” The time is coming when every man will have to prove
his kingliness not because of the insignia he keeps in the tower, but because
of a wise head, a noble heart, and a hand that never refused its offices to an
honest cause. (J. Parker,D. D.)

Anger

I. Thedeformity
of anger. What an ugly thing is anger.

II. The disgrace of
anger.

III. The danger of
anger. (J. Trapp.)

The batteries of passion

Regular ill-temper is altogether a different thing from passion.
The one corrodes incessantly like an acid or metal, the other discharges desperate
shocks like the electric shocks of the gymnotus, and spends itself. Do not get
in the way of passionate men until their batteries are discharged. The
exhaustion of these batteries is only a matter of time and opportunity. And you
may watch the process calmly, and be instructed by Humboldt’s description of
the way in which the gymnotes use their batteries, and see if you discover
therein any resemblance to and lesson for passionate persons. He tells us that
the gymnotes abound in the vicinity of Calaboza in South America, and the
Indians, well aware of the danger of encountering them when their powers are in
vigour, collect from twenty to thirty horses, drive them into the pools, and
when the gymnotes have exhausted their electric batteries on the poor horses
they can be taken without risk. Time and repose are needed before the batteries
are ready to act again. The first assault of the gymnotes, says Humboldt, was
chiefly to be dreaded. In fact, after a time the eels resembled discharged
batteries. Their muscular motion continued active, but they had lost the power
of giving energetic shocks. When the combat had endured for a quarter of an
hour the horses seemed to be less in fear. They were no longer seen to fall
backwards, and the gymnotes, swimming with their bodies half out of the water,
were now flying from the horses and making for the shore. The Indians then
began to use their harpoons, and by means of long cords attached to them drew
the fish out of the water. When the batteries of his passion have been
discharged many a passionate man has also afforded a similarly easy conquest to
those who have just watched and waited. (Scientific Illustrations, etc.)

The passionate character

The panther rarely attacks man without being provoked; but it is
irritated at the merest trifle, and its anger is manifested by the lightning
rapidity of its onset, which invariably results in the speedy death of the
imprudent being who has aroused its fury. Avoid passionate people, for they are
like the panther. (Scientific Illustrations, etc.)

Beautiful surroundings may be inoperative for good

Surely a palace will be a sanctuary. The palace of this man was
worse than a stable. Surely in the presence of beauty men must grow beautiful!
This man looked on beauty but did not see it, and perpetrated the irony of
living amongst beautiful things until he became ghastly and hideous. Never did
Pleasure hold such carnival; never were such Saturnalia known in all the earth.
Yet the men did not retire from it heroes and chief of virtue and beneficence;
they staggered away half beast and half devil. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Character is not in circumstances

Sometimes we say, looking upon the abodes of poverty, “What can we
expect here of decency, moral education, and progress? See how the poor are
huddled and crowded together! What can be looked for here but a “hotbed
bringing forth a most evil harvest?” All that is right. But if there is any
argument in it at all it is an argument that covers a large space. Here is a
man who has room enough, he has everything at his command; if he wants gold or
silver or precious stones he can have them by a nod of his head, what can we
expect here but piety, contentment, thankfulness, moral progress? Family life
under such a canopy must be a daily doxology, a sweet, hallowed thing more of
heaven than of earth. We must beware of the sophism in both sides of this
popular argument. Character is not in circumstances. The poorest people have,
in no solitary instances easily numbered, most vividly illustrated the purest
and noblest character. There are kings who are paupers, there are paupers who
are kings. We owe everything to moral education--we owe nothing to kingly
splendour. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Here let us remark the great advantage of laws. Law is mind
without passion; and it is better to have a code of laws, however bad, than to
have none but the will of a man. Had the king on this occasion acted according
to his passion, it is more than probable that the scene might have terminated
more tragically; but he acted “according to law.” Secondly, we see the great
advantage of counsel. “In the multitude of counsellors there is safety,” says
the wise man. This is more especially the case with those who have the lives,
the property, and even the religion of others, to consider and determine upon.
What an advantage is it to have for counsellors good men, who hate
covetousness, who have the welfare of their country at heart, and especially
those who act under the fear of God! (T. McCrie.)

Ifthey had been
wise, as counsellors ought to be, they would have been in no haste to give
judgment in a matter so important as that which was submitted to them. They
would have delayed till passion had cooled, and right reason had been restored.
But, half-intoxicated they proceeded to give judgment at once, falling in with
the humours of royalty, and hastening to do what could not afterwards be
recalled. (T. McEwan.)

Flatterers

It is the punishment of
despots to be surrounded by flatterers, and the words of counsellors are but
the dicta of their whims and conceits. (T. McEwan.)

Flatterers

There is a general lesson
suggested by what passed between the king and his counsellors as to the danger
of flattery. It is natural to all men to desire to have their opinions
confirmed and approved by others. The feeling of self-approbation, which forms
one element of happiness, is gratified and strengthened when several persons
give their verdict in favour of a choice which we have made or a course of
action which we have judged it right to pursue. But then, when men occupy
exalted stations, and have it in their power to reward richly those who are in
any way instrumental to the advancement of their comfort and happiness, they
are exposed to the very serious calamity of having counsels and opinions poured
into their ear for the purpose of pleasing them, and not of presenting truth to
them or guiding them rightly through difficulties. There is hardly any one,
indeed, who is exempted from the influence of flattery. It is less and less
exercised as wealth and power diminish; but when a man is possessed of anything
that can afford gratification to others, he will find some to fall in with his
wishes and approve of his opinions, until all he has is expended. Perhaps it is
in the condition of absolute poverty alone that the voice of flattery is not
heard. Whether we have or have not wherewithal to bribe others to our way of
thinking and feeling, and to secure their approval of our conduct, certain it
is that we have a flatterer in our own hearts whose insidious attempts to
mislead us we should guard against most anxiously. In every man there is a
conflict between inclination and the power of conscience. This conflict arises
and is carried on without reference to a man’s religious knowledge or belief.
The heathen were as conscious of it as those are who possess the oracles of
God. When unlawful desire prompts in one direction, there is another influence,
the natural conscience, which points in a different way, and has its strong
arguments to repress the cravings of desire. Now all the reasonings against the
conviction of what is right are just so many self-flatteries by which we are
seduced into sin. And their strength is too great. They put a false colouring
upon the objects of human pursuit, they make what is wrong appear right and
what is hurtful seem innocent, and thus the maxim is verified, “There is a way
which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” We
may wonder at the folly of Artaxerxes in allowing himself to be guided by the
judgment of men who only spoke what they supposed would please him! But all men
have as good reason--yea, Christ’s own people have as good reason--to wonder at
the strange flatteries by which at one time their progress heavenward is
interrupted, and at other times their will is enlisted on the side of what is
positively evil. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

The result of sensual
indulgence

1. The flattery and the falsehood of the world. The king is
surrounded by admirers and friends. They are “wise men who knew the times.” One
faithful but persecuted woman is the object of their hostility and the subject
of their counsel. But ah, where is the faithful man among them all? Why is
there no one to take the side of persecuted innocence and injured virtue? What
an aspect this council exhibits of the mind and motives of guilty men! How
rarely do the rich and great listen to the voice of truth or find the fidelity
of real friendship! To maintain the side of truth and virtue against wealth and
pride and power in the world is a signal mark of the great and noble mind. Thus
hand joins in hand in the perpetration of human sin. Is this peculiar? Nay,
this is the transgression with which the world aboundeth. What swarms of
flatterers hang about the path of self-indulgent youth! See that daughter of
wealth and fashion. How is sheled onfrom step to step in the blandishments of
her career. There is none to restrain, none to warn, and she has no real friend
to whom she can be induced to listen. Memucans abound wherever appetite asks an
excuse for the gratification it seeks.

2. See the total want of domestic confidence, the violation of that
pure and mutual family dependence which follows in the train of earthly
selfishness and sensuality. What a reason this prince of the kingdom of Persia
gives for his cruel and unjust advice! “This deed of the queen shall come
abroad unto all women,” etc. Memucan’s grand fear alleged is that all the wives
in Persia will prove either too virtuous to be degraded or too rebellious to be
governed. Nothing marks a debased and consciously criminal mind more clearly
and habitually than its suspicion and incredulity of the virtue and integrity
of others. This painful and disgraceful fact is brought before us in our
present illustration. It is the family relation of which Memucan speaks. What
is it that maintains in our households the spirit and dominion of mutual
confidence? I answer, not the world or the pursuit of the world, but the power
of true religion. Take this great principle of life and truth from the
household, let the world rule there in its pride of covetousness, or in its
lust of indulgence, and how soon and how thoroughly are domestic happiness,
dignity and peace sacrificed and cast away! Mutual suspicion, recrimination,
alienation, separation, divorce, hatred, persecution, murder, all follow in the
legitimate train of succession as natural and too often habitual results. Half
the talent and ingenuity of the world is exercised in plans for counterworking
and over reaching the schemes of other people, or in self-defence against their
violence orfraud.
What an exhibition this makes of human sin! The children of the world expend
their life and time and powers in suspecting, watching, guarding, forestalling
each other.

3. The actual crime to which this course of indulgence in sensuality
must lead. The king assents at once to the cruel and unjust advice which he
receives. “The saying pleased the king and princes, and the king did according
to the word of Memucan.” The self-indulgent monarch finds himself involved in
the grievous injustice and wrong which has been the result of his own sin. This
is the regular process through which the worldly and the ungodly habitually
travel. I do not mean to say that they are all allowed to attain this result of
open crime. The providence of a gracious God often interposes to keep men back
from the results of their own choice. Merciful indeed is this inter position.
Who can tell to what an extent of wickedness a rebellious world would run but
for the interference of this unseen Divine restraint? But such a restraint is a
special and peculiar interposition in the case of individuals. When
intemperance sinks into poverty and rejection--when fraud and robbery bring the
victim to a felon’s cell--when vanity and indecorous exposure prove the
destruction of female virtue--when anger and revenge result in bloodshed and
murder--men are not astonished. They recognise in all these the natural issues
of the principles we have traced.

4. See how surely the day of regret must come to human guilt. The
king has finished his purpose and the advice of his attendants. But he is far
from peace. Sin can never satisfy the sinner. “After these things, when the
wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had
done, and what was decreed against her.” Human wrath cannot last for ever. The
whirl of the excitement passes, and then comes the bitterness of the memory of
sin. The soul is filled with remorse--literally, a biting, gnawing of itself.
It is the fearful result of human sin. This is the chamber of the world. In all
these there comes the question that will be answered, “What fruit had ye then
of those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of these things is
death.” This is ever the result. What remembered follies crowd upon the mind!
The soul looks inward and holds communion with itself. A thousand Vashtis are
remembered, what they have done and what they have suffered. It is a deeply
convincing hour. New and wonderful light is poured in upon the conscience. This
is the end of the sensual indulgence of the world. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

Courtiers forsake a
failing cause

I. The courtly
orator.

II. His cunning
flattery.

III. His vicious reasoning.

IV. His
time-serving policy.

V. His unfeeling
nature. (W. Burrows, B. A.)

The folly of trusting in
man

Ahasuerus was guilty of
it. Remark that this practice--

I. Is idolatrous
in its principles.

II. It is
grovelling in its aim.

III. It is unreasonable
in its foundation

IV. It is
destructive in its issue. Learn--

1. There is no safety in man.

2. To put your trust in the Lord. (Sketches of Sermons.)

Counsel needed

Not only kings, but also
private persons, often need wise counsels, especially when they are hurried
away by their passions. But our loss is, that at such times we are uncommonly
unfit to receive counsel. (G. Lawson.)

Fit counsellors few:--Every man is not fit
to be a counsellor. (G. Lawson.)

For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women.

Fashions travel downward

Fashions and maxims
usually go downward from one class of society to another. Customs, adopted by
the higher orders as their rule, gradually make their way until at length they
pervade all ranks. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Evil actions do not
terminate in themselves

“What the queen doth will
be done by all,” was his statement, and we must feel the truthfulness of it. It
embodies a maxim peculiarly applicable to the followers of Christ. They are
supposed to be separate from the sinful world by the very circumstance of their
being Christ’s. Then, if they become worldly--if they act inconsistently--their
acts do not terminate in and with themselves. What they say and do produces
effects far beyond their Own calculation and their own sphere. A word spoken
for Christ may bear fruit where they would not have been prepared to look for
such a result. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Among the laws of the Persians and the Medea, that it be not
altered.--

Unalterable judgments
foolish

He who prides himself on
never reversing his judgments should be extremely cautious about forming them.
Obstinacy may refuse to change its opinions; wisdom will be guilty of no such
rashness. (J. S. Van Dyke, D. D.)

And let the king give her royal estate unto another.--

The vicissitudes of life

Perhaps you look back upon
scenes different from those in which now from day to day you mingle. You have
exchanged the plenty and luxuriance of your father’s house for privation and
trials known to God and your own heart. The morning of life was flushed with
promise. Troops of calamities since then have made desperate charge upon you.
Darkness has come. Sorrows have swooped like carrion birds from the sky, and
barked like jackals from the thicket. You stand amid your slain, anguished and
woe-struck. Rizpah on the rock. So it has been in all ages. Vashti must doff
the spangled robes of the Persian Court, and go forth blasted from the palace
gate. Hagar exchanges Oriental comfort for the wilderness of Beersheba. Mary
Queen of Scots must pass out from flattery and pomp to suffer ignominious death
in the Castle of Fotheringay. The wheel of fortune keeps turning, and mansions
and huts exchange, and he who rode in the chariot pushes the barrow, and
instead of the glare of festal lights is the simmering of the peat fire, and in
place of Saul’s palace is the rock, the cold rock, the desolate rock. But that
is the place to which God comes. Jacob with his head on a stone saw the shining
ladder. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Unjustifiable divorce

We cannot but remark upon
the facility with which divorce took place in that land of Persia. We cannot be
too thankful that we live not where such unjust laws obtain. Nor can we too
zealously guard the sacred obligations of wedded life. Perhaps many cases of
unhappiness might be traced to a similar cause to that which brought about the
separation of Ahasuerus and Vashti. Any mere trifle becomes sufficient as an
excuse for separation. We have heard of a quarrel and divorce taking place
because one asserted that there were a certain number of windows in a house
opposite and the other denied it. Each maintained their point with obstinacy,
and neglected to settle their difference by counting them. (F. Hastings.)

The Nemesis of absolutism

The character of Ahasuerus
illustrates the Nemesis of absolutism by showing how unlimited power is crushed
and dissolved beneath the weight of its own immensity. The very vastness of hie
domains overwhelms the despot. He is the slave of his own machinery of
government. But this is not all. The man who is exalted to the pedestal of a
god is made dizzy by his own altitude. Absolutism drove Caligula mad; it
punished Xerxes with childishness. The silly monarch who would decorate a tree
with the jewellery of a prince in reward for its fruitfulness, and flog and
chain the Hellespont as a punishment for its tempestuousness, is not fit to be
let out of the nursery. When the same man appears on the pages of Scripture
under the name of Ahasuerus, his weakness is despicable. (W. F. Adeney M. A.)

All the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great
and small.

Wives to honour their husbands

Allthe wives too are included, for they are all “to give
honour to their husbands, both to the great and small.” Well, the great, the
really great, will get the honour easily, and could do very well probably
without the helpful edict. Where there is real greatness, which, in Christian
speech, we may translate into real goodness, it is the wife’s joy to render
what it is the husband’s pride to wear. But the honour is to be given “both to
the great and small!” “Ay, there’s the rub.” If this insurrectionary torch
should go through the land, what will become of the small ones?--the selfish,
the spiteful, the meddlesome, the rude, the mean, the silly, the helpless, the
good-for-nothing? They are all to have honour! As if a decree could really get
it, or keep it from them. Wouldn’t the better plan be, in that case, and in
many a case besides, that the small shall try to grow larger? Let them be
ashamed of their littleness, and rise out of it into something like nobleness.
Let them love and help their wives, and care for their children, and honour
will come as harvest follows sowing. But unless they do something like that,
one fears that all the edicts that can be devised and promulgated will leave
them as it finds them--“small.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Love is the law

1. And does not this history teach us that the great law of domestic
happiness is love? No Persian decrees are required to execute the mandates of
love, nor can any royal commandment make a household happy without it. The true
way for all queens to rule is to “stoop to conquer.” Let their husbands call themselves
as much as they please “the lords of creation,” and let them seem to hold the
reins, but it is theirs to tell them how to drive. This is the more excellent
way. The dispute about the sphere of the sexes is as unphilosophical as it is
unscriptural. It is God’s will that man should be the head and woman the heart
of society. If he is its strength, she is its solace. If he is its wisdom, she
is its grace and consolation. Domestic strife is always a great evil, but it
becomes doubly so when it occurs before company, as happened with the king of
Persia, and when professed friends come in and make bad worse. It is then the
wound becomes incurable.

2. Let us learn to guard against all excesses, not only in feasting
and in the loss of time, but of feeling and passion. How inconsiderate, how
rash, how sinful was Herod’s oath and terrible decree against John the Baptist!
And scarcely less wicked were the king’s unjust and cruel proceedings against
his wife. It was a maxim with General Jackson to take much time to
deliberate--to think out the right resolution--but when once the resolution was
taken, then to think only of executing it.

3. How emphatic a lesson is here of human vanity! The great monarch
of such a vast empire is not able to govern himself. And all the grandeur of
half a year’s feasting is spoiled by the disobedience of his queen. This was
the dead fly in his pot of ointment.

4. Alas! that so lovely a place as a garden should have been the
scene of such revelry and sinning. A garden is associated with some of our
holiest and saddest thoughts. Sin fastened on our race in a garden. It was in a
garden the curse was pronounced, and there too the great promise of a Redeemer
was given. And it was in a garden the Messiah entered the lists of mortal
combat to bruise the old serpent’s head. Instead, then, of making our gardens
the scenes of sinful mirth and dissipation, as did the Persian king, let us
make them oratories for pious breathings to heaven--let them give us thoughts
of God and of the love and sufferings of His Son Jesus Christ. It is to Him we
owe all our pleasures in the creatures and gifts of providence, as well as the
hope of eternal life. And so also let the garden be a preacher to us of our
frailty. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)

The husband to bear rule in his house

This is truly a Divine appointment, but it is not made in an
arbitrary manner, like, for instance, a positive institution of the Jews, which
might be this way or that way with equal propriety--the thing deriving its
sacred character chiefly from the fact of the appointment. Even a Divine
appointment could not make the wife supreme, human nature continuing what it
is. For one thing, woman is weaker than man physically, and supremacy goes with
strength. All kinds of force have their ultimate source in God, and when He
makes man permanently stronger than woman, no doubt He means some corresponding
authority to rest where the permanent strength does. No doubt strength may be
abused, is most shamefully abused in some instances, by the husband. But the
way to prevent the abuse of strength is not, surely, to attempt to transfer its
proper responsibilities to weakness? Weakness may be abused as much as
strength, and in some ways even more. Again, there are many things of less or
more importance which come to require a single ultimate decision. One must say
how this thing is to be. Practical action must be taken one way or other. Who
shall decide? Is the husband to submit to the wife? He decides with whom God
has lodged the responsibility. But the truth is that in a properly regulated,
or rather a properly inspired home, the question of authority in its bald form
never arises. The husband’s rule and the wife’s obedience are alike
unconscious, and alike easy. The sweet laws of nature, the good laws of God, make
them one. This leads us to say, on the other hand, with equal emphasis, that
the authority of the husband is clearly a limited authority. Common sense ought
to teach a man that there is a large sphere of the practical family life where
he ought to leave the wife and mother practically supreme. His interference at
all (whatever may be the abstract right) will not help the industry, the order,
the peace of the household. But, rising higher, look at the grand fact that the
authority of the husband over the wife has, and must have, clear and strong,
and altogether impassable limits. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Bear rule in his own
house.--

Houses should be homes

“In his own house”--who has a house of his own? The house is a
prison until somebody else shares it. The house belongs to all the people that
are in it--part to the husband, part to the wife, part to the children, part to
the servants, right through all the household line. Develop the notion of
partnery, co-responsibility; let every one feel a living interest in the place: then the house shall
be built of living stones, pillared with righteousness, roofed with love. It is
here that Christianity shines out with unique lustre. Obedience is right for
all parties, but the obedience has to be in the Lord; it is to be the obedience
of righteousness, a concession to wisdom, a toll paid to honour, which is to be
returned in love and gratitude. Christianity has made our houses homes. We owe
everything that is socially beneficent to Christianity. (J. Parker,D. D.)

His own house

A manliving at a hotel is like a grape-vine in a
flower-pot--movable, carried around from place to place, docked at the root and
short at the top. Nowhere can a man get real root-room, and spread out his
branches till they touch the morning and the evening, but in his own house.

The overruling providence of God

The important thing, in order to our understanding the story, is
that we should keep these first links in our hand, and should mark the working
of “another King.” Into the administration of our Lord Jesus Christ no mistake
can creep, and so perfect is His grasp that mosaic pavements, golden couches,
throngs of noblemen, fawning courtiers, excess of wine, swelling vanity, and a
woman’s firmness, are all, without the slightest knowledge on the part of any
actor in the drama, made to bring about a purpose of His, the execution of
which is more than four years distant. Had Ahasuerus not been the proud
voluptuary he was; had he not made his great feast; had he not in the last day
of it let slip or thrown away the reins of sound reason and run his head
against a first law of nature; had his vanity taken any other direction than
that of wishing to parade the queen’s beauty; had Vashti been less of a true
woman; had the courtiers been honester than they were--then there would have
been no vacant place for Esther to fill, and the plot of Haman might have
thriven. But we have this song, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of
wrath shalt Thou restrain.” (A. M. Symington, B. A.)